Do petitions do anything?

An article on the New York Times today looks at Change.org and whether online petition campaigns are truly effective.

The answer is a qualified yes.

“No president is going to do an about-face on a major policy because of 20,000 signatures,” he wrote. “But coupling that petition with other tactics like protests, rallies, phone calls, face-to-face lobbying, a well-organized media plan and community outreach creates an environment in which the goals of the signatories can become reality.”